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May 24, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Hulu recently announced that it would join both Netflix and Amazon Prime in allowing its users to download content to watch offline, but in Hulu’s case, it comes with a twist. If you subscribe to the $7.99 a month tier, in addition to downloading the content you want to watch, you’ll also be downloading the […]
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May 23, 2018 by Vertical Axion
In terms of toys, what could possibly be better than LEGOS? How about LEGOS, combined with Alexa? That’s the latest idea from Amazon, who has paired the unlikely duo in a newly announced service called “LEGO Duplo Stories.” The new service (“skill,” in the parlance of Alexa) will be available on any device that offers […]
May 22, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Before Google released its Chrome browser, Firefox felt pretty good about their arrangement. They got a handsome reward in exchange for making Google.com their default search engine. It was a win-win. These days though, Firefox’s position is a bit more precious. The Google deal is still the main source of the company’s income, but they’re […]
May 21, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft has been having some “issues” of late. It’s April Windows 10 rollout had to be delayed on account of some mysterious BSOD (“Blue Screen of Death”) issues. This month’s rollout is plagued by similar problems, trading the BSOD issues for problems with both “Hey Cortana” and Google’s Chrome browser. The problem is that when […]
May 19, 2018 by Vertical Axion
At this year’s F8 Developer’s conference, Facebook announced a raft of changes and updates it will be rolling out later this year. Some are fun, others practical, but they’re all interesting. Here are the highlights: Get Ready for “FaceDate” This announcement is interesting. Not so much because the idea of using Facebook to meet someone […]
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May 18, 2018 by Vertical Axion
The Department of Health and Human services has issued a warning to healthcare providers to be on high alert for the SamSam strain of ransomware, which has been used to attack eight different health care entities so far this year. SamSam made its first appearance in 2016 and is seeing increasingly widespread use so far […]
May 17, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Twitter shot itself in the foot recently but is working hard to get out in front of the problem. According to a recent blog post, the company experienced an issue with its hashing routine – a process which masks user passwords, making them virtually impossible to crack. Because of the issue, user passwords were stored […]
May 16, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Apple promised that its iTunes app would be available on the Microsoft Store by the end of 2017. The announcement was greeted with enthusiasm, but unfortunately, the company didn’t meet their own deadline. They cited the need for more time to build a more robust user experience for Windows users. The wait is finally over, […]
May 15, 2018 by Vertical Axion
The on-again, off-again talks about a merger between T-Mobile and Sprint is definitely back on, with T-Mobile planning to buy Sprint for a staggering $26 billion. The deal has been in the works since before Trump was elected President. It died quietly when it became clear that the Obama administration would not allow the deal […]
May 14, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Thanks to researchers Daan Keuper and Thijs Alkemade (who work at the Dutch cyber-security firm Computest), newly produced Golf GTE and Audi A3 vehicles are a little bit safer, and a lot less vulnerable to remote hacks. The duo found that by taking advantage of these vehicles’ WiFi connection, they could access the cars’ IVI, […]
May 12, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Score one for the good guys, but with hesitation. Unfortunately, in today’s fast-moving digital world, even a victory doesn’t mean the end of a problem. Recently, a pair of researchers (Tomi Tuominen and Timo Hirvonen of F-Secure) released information about a new hack they had discovered. It takes advantage of a critical security flaw in […]
May 11, 2018 by Vertical Axion
After more than two decades in the business, Apple is officially going to stop selling routers. The writing has been on the wall for a while now, since the company’s “AirPort” family of products hasn’t received a significant update in more than five years. When Apple first introduced its AirPort product line, wireless computing was […]
May 10, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Security researcher Assaf Baharav from Check Point Security has discovered a new twist on an old, fairly well-known attack. He was able to essentially “weaponize” PDFs to steal Windows credentials stored in NTLM hashes. Unfortunately, no action other than simply opening the PDF is required for the hacker to gain access to the information. Baharav […]
May 9, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Owners of Apple devices have a new attack vector to worry about, called “TrustJacking.” Symantec researchers recently stumbled across a pair of scenarios that take advantage of Wi-Fi syncing of various Apple devices. These are scenarios that also take advantage of the trust users have in the security of their own devices, allowing hackers to […]
May 8, 2018 by Vertical Axion
File this one away under self-inflicted wounds. It has recently come to light that a company called LocalBox left a massive data file vulnerable on a cloud server. The data file was more than a terabyte in size and contained detailed psychometric profiles of more than 48 million people. LocalBox describes itself as a combination […]
May 7, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Recently, a new strain of malware called “SquirtDanger” has been found by researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, and it’s a particularly nasty one for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the owner of the malware isn’t orchestrating campaigns himself, but rather, selling his product as a commodity on the Dark Web. That […]
May 5, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Researchers at the University of Washington just might change the face of computers and computing forever. It may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but based on their research, the day may soon be coming when computing devices are completely un-tethered, requiring no wires for either power or recharging. The team was able to […]
May 4, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Atlanta-based SunTrust Bank is the 12th largest bank in the US. They have a major problem, and so do roughly a million and a half of its customers. According to CEO William Rogers, an unidentified employee of the firm printed a vast amount of private customer information, including their names, addresses, phone numbers and account […]
May 3, 2018 by Vertical Axion
If you recently bought a 13-inch MacBook Pro (without a Touch Bar), you’ll want to head to Apple’s website. The company didn’t make a big announcement, but they’ve quietly introduced a battery replacement program that impacted what the company described as a “limited number” of laptops. The company didn’t provide many details, but apparently, on […]
May 2, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you do your banking online? If so, there’s bad news in the form of a report recently released by the security firm “Positive Technologies.” The company tested a variety of websites using a proprietary tool they developed in-house, which scans websites for security flaws. While flaws were found across a wide range of […]
May 1, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Score one for the good guys. A researcher from BrilliantIT was recently able to figure out how infected computers would connect to EITest’s command and control server, and using that information, was able to bring down their entire network. If you haven’t heard of EITest before, the true significance of that statement might not be […]
April 28, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Beware of compromised routers spreading malware. This is according to both Kaspersky Labs and a recently released government report. Using hacked routers to spread malware is nothing new. Security insiders have known about it for years. However, since 2008, the number of instances where routers are being used to push malicious code has been steadily […]
April 27, 2018 by Vertical Axion
More often than not, Google is seen as a force for good on the internet. However, in one area in particular, their actions and words haven’t been in alignment, and it’s gotten them in trouble. Here’s Google’s official statement about their YouTube Kids service: “Protecting kids and families has always been a top priority for […]
April 26, 2018 by Vertical Axion
If you have an air-gapped computer, you probably think you’re safe. You may think that barring physical access to the machine, no hacker could possibly steal the data on that machine. Unfortunately, you’d be incorrect. Security researchers from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel, have discovered a new way of stealing data […]
